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The Ballad of Stuffed Trigger
The Ballad of Stuffed Trigger is a demo tape compiled in August 1970 by the group who would later become known as The Residents. With contents dating from the summer of 1970, The Ballad of Stuffed Trigger is one of the group's earliest surviving recordings, originating from the same sessions as their other 1970 demo, Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor. It is known that The Residents "really don't like" the tape"Rusty and Trigger are the two recordings they really don't like, or consider Residential. There was a 22 minute 'concentrate' of Rusty they edited together a year or so ago, but I think it freaked them out! I think it's the only thing I've suggested or asked of them that they've said "No" to." - Richard, The Residents Facebook group, January 15th 2020, and it has never been officially released. An edited version of the title track is the only excerpt to see release, in 2012 on the compilation ERA B474. A mid-quality bootleg copy of the tape began circulating among fans in 2015. History The Ballad of Stuffed Trigger was compiled in August 1970 by a loose collective of like-minded eccentrics going by the name The Delta Nudes, from hours of recordings made with multi-instrumentalist Roland Sheehan, who had appeared at their San Mateo apartment in June of that year with a U-haul trailer full of musical instruments.Jim Knipfel, "Somethin' Devilish: The Untold (And Finally True) Pre-History of The Residents, 1963-1971" The title track (referred to by Sheehan as "When Roy Stuffed Trigger") was recorded shortly after the song "Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor". In co-writing these two songs, the skilled guitarist Sheehan followed the group's instructions to avoid using his musical knowledge. Sheehan left the group at the end of the summer, however they had already begun to craft their many hours of tape into two curated demo reels, Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor and The Ballad of Stuffed Trigger. These two tapes were likely intended to be sent by the group to their friends although only one of the group's associates, former KBOO-FM disc jockey William Reinhardt, has confirmed receiving copies of all four of the group's early demos as a gift after making the group's acquaintance in 1974."I played the RR tape copies of Baby Sex and WB on my KBOO show, yes. Those and others Hardy gave me as gifts for airing, along with promotion of MTR in the first year we were friends, 1973-74." - William Reinhardt, The Residents Facebook group, August 2nd 2018"Damn, I had the original R-R tape, a special gift from Hardy for airplay on my KBOO radio show. Well, years later in '89 I was desperate for cash and sold it. Our close relationship was fractured when they found out! I never recovered the trust we once shared after that regretful mistake!" - William Reinhardt, The Residents Facebook group, April 4th 2019 Contents ]]With a length of 38 minutes, The Ballad of Stuffed Trigger includes early, abortive attempts at covering The Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction", The Swingin' Medallions' "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)", and the traditional "When Johnny Comes Marching". All three songs would later recur as thematic elements throughout the group's later career as The Residents. Other standards performed on Stuffed Trigger include versions of George Gershwin's "Summertime", The Beatles' "Let It Be", and "House of the Rising Sun" (a traditional folk song popularized in 1964 by The Animals). Stuffed Trigger appears to date from approximately the same time as Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor, to the extent that the two are often interchangeably listed in chronological terms in various histories of The Residents. Guitarist Roland Sheehan confirmed many years later that the song "Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor" was recorded shortly prior to the song "The Ballad of Stuffed Trigger". The tape contains a reprise of the title track towards its end. Track listing As the tape mostly consists of loose, improvisational jams and studio banter and was not ever intended by the group for release, there is no known cover art nor any definitive track listing, and a number of the tracks on the tape probably never had titles to begin with. However, given that a number of tracks on the tape are recognizably cover versions, or have had titles otherwise provided by bootleggers (or other mysterious sources, ie. "Ecological Blues", an ambiguously placed title which originated with the first bootleg CD-R) a track listing could be roughly approximated as follows: * Satisfaction (Jagger/Richards) * Cherry, Cherry (Diamond) * Let It Be (Lennon/McCartney) * The Ballad of Stuffed Trigger * Improvisation #1 * Ecological Blues * Summertime (Gershwin) * That's The Place For Me * Improvisation #2 * House of the Rising Sun (traditional) * Summertime #2 (Gershwin) * The Ballad of Stuffed Trigger #2 * When Johnny Comes Marching (traditional) / Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love) (Smith/Vetter) Availability Early reports , ca. 1971]] The earliest reference to The Ballad of Stuffed Trigger and Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor in any of the group's written material was in 1971, when the two demos were listed as "previous releases" in the liner notes to The W***** B*** Album demo tape. For many years, the existence of the two tapes were known to fans only through a mention in Matt Groening's 1979 article "The True Story of The Residents", as well as occasional references in Ralph Records promotional material in the mid-to-late 1970s. Uncle Willie said that his personal research in The Residents' archives in the early 1990s only turned up "a suite named 'The Ballad of Stuffed Trigger'"Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide To The Residents. Bootlegs An unidentified Residents fan is known to have purchased copies of the two tapes (as well as The W***** B*** Album and B.S.) from the group's friend William Reinhardt in 1989. Reinhardt was suffering financial problems at the time and sold the tapes with regret; this betrayal of confidence would nevertheless strain Reinhardt's relationship with The Residents from that point onwards. The first artifacts of Rusty Coathangers and Stuffed Trigger to leak to the public were a number of short snippets of tracks which were released to the Internet in the late 2000s by a fan. These snippets and are of notably higher quality than the later bootlegs, though a complete copy of this version continues to elude fans. Both tapes later became available in low-to-mid quality in 2015, on a limited series of bootleg CD-Rs. It has been rumored that these CDs originate from material stolen from The Residents' archives by a former associate and later made available for profit. Statement from The Cryptic Corporation In response to the spread of the group's early recordings in 2015, then-President of The Cryptic Corporation, Hardy Fox, released the following statement: I certainly understand that the reality is that people are going to be curious about this material and the fact that The Residents don't wish them to be listening to it does not exert the slightest pressure to not do it. But our perspective is to support the group and not encourage people to want to hear these mediocre recordings. I think the only thing that can be done is to make certain it is understood that The Residents regard these as personal recordings and consider people listening to them akin to peeping through the window while they masturbate. A vision that will no doubt drive some people forward as much as it might discourage others. People do need to be careful that they don't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. There is little to nothing to be gained by irritating the group, and already there are considerably more interesting recordings that have not been released to serious fans because they know that unscrupulous people will just post them all over the place. In time, it could kill the group's interest in releasing obscure recordings entirely. But so it goes. The dam is broken, long live the new dam. Hardy Fox Crypticorp Official releases To date, only an excerpt of the title track from the tape has been released officially (on the ERA B474 and The Delta Nudes' Greatest Hiss compilations, in 2012 and 2013 respectively), in a shortened edit which includes an overdub of a choir in its coda, not heard on the longer version. A representative from Cherry Red Records said in January 2020 that The Ballad of Stuffed Trigger was not being considered for release by The Residents, as they don't consider it to be "Residential" ("even less" than Rusty Coathangers)."For what it's worth, I gather RCFTD is under consideration, although considered not very Residential at all. Ballad even less so..." - Richard, The Residents Facebook group, March 27th 2019 See also * The Delta Nudes * Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor * The W***** B*** Album * B.S. Listen online * "The Ballad of Stuffed Trigger" (2012 edit) on Spotify External links and references * "Before the Beginning" on RZWeb * [https://www.discogs.com/The-Residents-The-Ballad-Of-Stuffed-Trigger/release/3025637 The Ballad of Stuffed Trigger (Bootleg CD-R) at Discogs] * A Nickle If Your Dick's This Bigat Discogs Category:The Delta Nudes Category:Demo tapes Category:Unreleased Category:The Ballad of Stuffed Trigger